Never Too Late: if you missed The IPKat last week

Trade marks 

Sunday nap

Banksy’s trade mark, depicting the “Flower thrower”, has been declared invalid due to bad faith by the EUIPO. While numerous (misplaced) commentaries of this case in the blogosphere tend to confuses copyright with trade mark law, be sure to read the case comment authored by PermaKat Eleonora to understand the repercussions of this decision. 

Last week, the Court of Justice of the European Union confirmed that there is no likelihood of confusion between an earlier word mark MASSI and an application for a figurative mark containing the word MESSI. GuestKat Léon Dijkman looked into how strong conceptual dissimilarity (and Lionel Messi’s even stronger reputation) helped overcome a high degree of visual and aural similarity between the two signs. 

Kat Friends Gretchen Su and Lee in Hae shared their thoughts about a recent case from Singapore, where the use of personal names in trade marks was addressed. The case at issue was an opposition to an application of a mark combining the sign “V” with words “Valentino Rudi” by the Italian high end fashion company Valentino. The opposition was unsuccessful, both on the grounds of the likelihood of confusion and passing-off. 

Copyright 

GuestKat Peter Ling discussed a ruling from the Supreme Court of Austria concerning the football screening in pubs and the underlying broadcasting issues. Although the facts are somewhat similar to those of the UK’s Premier League case, which was addressed by the CJEU nine years ago, the Austrian Court reached a different conclusion as to the existence of copyright infringement by the pub. Peter provides his analysis as to the “why” of the differences. 

GuestKat Léon Dijkman analysed a decision from the Hague Court of Appeal, which covers issues of state liability for statements done by its officials and questions of copyright piracy. The court considered whether a statement, made in 2010 by the Dutch State Secretary concerning the eventual amendments to the Dutch Copyright Act to make reproduction of infringing copies unlawful, may have induced some individuals to download unlawful content. 

Designs 

Our Africa Correspondent, Chijioke Okorie, shared her analysis of a design case, which reached the Federal High Court of Nigeria Here, the Court considered whether two designs of the respondent, registered without substantive examination, were new or should be nullified based on an earlier product from the claimant. 

Other 

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away last week, leaving behind a significant legacy in law, culture and feminism. From The IPKat team, Hayleigh Bosher prepared an obituary, reflecting on RBG’s dedication to justice, women’s rights and intellectual property law. 

The essential information for candidates of the UK patent exams has been released. Rose Hughes summarises its main points (and opens the floor for discussion in the Comments section). 

Can academic peer-review learn something from patent prosecution? That is the question asked by Rose Hughes in her latest post. The two processes may seem dissimilar at first sight. But Rose sees peer-reviewing of a research article as a moment to decide whether it is new, non-obvious and original, concepts well-known in patent prosecution. If it is possible to objectively test a patent application, why not an academic piece? 

Kat Friend Andrea Rossi discussed the recent release of the new top level domain (TLD) “.gay”, registered by a US-based company, which will now sell domain names under this TLD. The author wonders whether the monopolization of LGBTQ-related signs will now be addressed through IP law and, possibly, by an international agreement that will regulate their use. 

The UK IPO launched a call for views on aiIntelligence and intellectual property. Hayleigh Bosher briefly summarized the main points of the questionnaire, adding her reflections on some of the questions asked by the UK IPO. 

Never too late 282 [ Week ending September 13]: UK patent exams: FD4/P6 survey and model answers | UK trade mark registration denied for sign including ‘THE ROYAL BUTLER’, following opposition by Lord Chamberlain (on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen) | Patent exploitation, competition law and the challenge of overlapping subject-matter jurisdiction 

Never too late 281 [Week ending September 6]: AG Hogan advises CJEU to rule that disclosure of evidence containing protected content to a court is not a communication to the public | The legal nature of Article 17 of the Copyright DSM Directive, the (lack of) freedom of Member States, and why the German implementation proposal is not compatible with EU law | EUR 2,453 per individual character: Chinese brush pen calligraphy works and fair use | The mirage of AI invention - nothing more than advanced trial and error? | Is the animated representation of a ventilated lung patentable subject matter? | Repurposed fabric face coverings - what options are available to affected brands? | Richard Meade QC appointed to the High Court The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020 has been released